Q&A Write-up: February
Hot fixes for a sales process
Q&A’s happen once a month where I answer one of the paid subscribers questions and do a write-up answering it for the entire community.
February’s question:
I am in reverse mortgage sales as a loan officer (B2C, selling to senior citizens) and want to know the best way to apply the course concepts to my role (Frame, Status, Scripts, etc.) in order to consistently close the biggest deals in the company?
- Avg deal size ~$10-15k can go up to $100k+
- Decision makers usually are either a single individual, married couple, or families.
- Avg sales cycle length is 30-45 days once the deal is booked.
- Mix of inbound leads from marketing and outbound leads from previous leads who weren't booked.
- Sales process overview: Application (discovery), Pitch (demo), Next Steps (too much for this comment, but its a mortgage transaction so a bunch of paperwork.), then Closing (another problem area, sometimes people want to back out at the closing table.)
Hopefully this isn't too long. Thanks for all you do.
The biggest deals will come as a result of solving the biggest problems (big in scope and/or severity)
The problem drives the sale.
Avg deal size ~$10-15k can go up to $100k+
I suggest creating 3 columns for each “Deal size”
Left Column: $10-$15k
Middle Column: ~$50k
Right Column: $100k+
Create a typical scenario for each category under each column.
List out the reasons why they bought from you. Not the reasons you think they bought from you but the reasons they explicitly told you (or your colleagues).. You may even have to ask some of your existing customers in order to get this information.
By the end you should have 3 distinct categories of buyers with common scenarios and key indicators/similarities/patterns for why the deals closed.
This should help you size up future opportunities faster and know what to look for in similar deals.
High end deals will have a few similarities to other High end deals.. the same way small deals do, etc.
This is Pareto’s Principle in action.. 80% of the deals you close will have 20% of “things” in common.
Find that common 20% of recurring indicators/themes because if you do, it can get you 80% of the way there on future deals.
Mix of inbound leads from marketing and outbound leads from previous leads who weren't booked.
What about getting leads from referrals of existing customers?
That’s an option I’d look into as well.
2 ideas on how to better engage with an inbound lead and previous leads
Inbound Lead
Reference the social context from which they heard about you / opted in.
Example
🐲: Good to connect today.. so what was it that you saw/read on our website/[marketing collateral] that made you reach out to us?
Prospect: We were interested to learn a little bit more about you and blah blah
🐲: Cool.. okay.. and if I can ask.. Why are you interested in getting a reverse mortgage?
Note: I’ve never sold mortgages so I’m making this up but you get the idea.
Previous Lead
outbound leads from previous leads who weren't booked.
I’m assuming this either means leads who never booked a meeting and/or closed.
Regardless, hit ‘em with the “closing your file” email.
Example:
🐲: Hi John, I haven’t heard back from you so I’m assuming you’ve successfully secured a mortgage loan elsewhere. Since that is probably the case we will close your file within the next 48 hours unless we hear back from you.
If no response within 48 hours, you move on.
*Note: Personalize this and make it your own.
—
Closing (another problem area, sometimes people want to back out at the closing table.)
You should be giving your buyers the chance to back out often throughout your deals.
This reduces the odds of you getting surprised at the last minute (and paradoxically can strengthen their interest in moving forward with you)
Couple questions here:
Why are people backing out at the closing table?
Why are the concerns coming up? What happened prior to this occurring?
What are they saying are the main concerns?
Every objection is a potential problem that can be solved.. or not solved.
So think how you can “solve the problem” both on the spot in the form of a Reframe / Rebuttal and how you can lower the odds the “problem” comes up at the end.
This is what I call the “2 prong” approach
Pre-emptive Strikes
Ideally you want to be Disqualifying as early as realistically possible in order to preserve precious time & energy.
So you’ll be doing Pre-emptive strikes before you go into Discovery.. somewhere during the “Bridge” portion of the call.
Review this in the course again if needed.
The idea is:
Why waste your time with someone who would never agree to your next steps process regardless of how much pain they are in?
You’re not going to convince them so better to deal with it head on and earlier in the process.
Example:
🐲: John part of our next steps process requires [explain process].. are you going to have any issues following that process assuming you want to move forward of course.
Challenge them:
🐲: Are you sure? It is a lot of paperwork
You are lucky your deal cycle is only 30~45 days. I’ve seen too many occasions where sellers waste months on a deal that was never going to close because they weren’t having the uncomfortable conversations upfront.
Reframe & Rebuttal
Pre-emptive strikes are not fool proof but should eliminate a good amount of last minute objections.
Of course there will always be last minute roadblocks and concerns to deal with.
Another way I’d potentially tackle it is by simply reminding them of their problem and asking them a tough question
Example:
🐲: John I’m a bit confused because you told me that [recap the problem/opportunity they want to solve for, the impact of the problem, the desired outcomes they want to achieve and their stated WHY].. Help me understand.. if you don’t do this how are you going to get [specific desired outcome]?
Note: Review the CPR framework from the course again.
Try implementing these changes and report back!
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Thanks! I'll definitely be implementing this and get back to you with the results.